Bath Time Tetris

Bath time is one of those times of day that my child just loves. It's even better when she can share it with one of her cousins, splashing about, making a watery swamp out of the bathroom floor. To tame bath time we have recently tried shaving cream paint. It's been a big hit but again the mess that it creates makes me question it's worth. The other thing with this popular bath time activity is that the whole bathroom reeks of shaving cream. The chemical fragrance seems to be amplified by the steamy hot bath and I wonder if we are risking asphyxiation.

So unhappy with the swamp in my bathroom or the toxic stench of shaving cream, I put on my thinking cap and started thinking of some good clean bath time activities.  Something that keeps the kids occupied in a manner that keeps them from emptying the bath content onto the tiled floor. Something that doesn't require cleaning, staining, or a load of equipment that we spend more time having to pack up. And so people here is the fruit of my mental labour... Bath time Tetris! 

It's everything I wanted in a bath time activity and more! It's easy to make and cost me less than $3.00 AUD. It is open ended, can be shared between two or more children and you don't even have to have a bath to enjoy it! 

Here's how you make it. (So simple and Sew free) 

What you will need

• 3 or more sheets of craft foam. You can buy it from craft stores.
• Scissors
• A marker that will wash off the foam
• Tetris shape stencil  (click on photo below and print to make your own stencils) 

First thing is to print the stencils and cut out the shapes. At this point you can stick them to card to create thicker stencils or just use them as is. Once you have done that, using the washable marker, trace the shapes onto the foam sheets. Be careful to make them as accurate as possible so they fit together later. Last thing to do now is to cut them out!

 

Once I finished I gave ours a wash to get rid of price tag sticker and marker. 

While the pieces can be played with randomly you can also play a more traditional game of Tetris. Find a straight edge to use as the bottom of your game. Randomly pick a Tetris pieces from the tub and arrange them from the bottom up. In order for it to be  like the Tetris computer game you need to slide the pieces into place rather than sticking them into spaces. Once all the pieces are used count how many solid lines you have  formed. If you were playing with multiple players you would decide the winner by seeing who has made the most lines.

One of the perks of this game is that kids can enjoy it without having a bath. As you can see they stick really well to glass surfaces. All you have to do to make them stick is keep them wet so leave a shallow dish of water near by for the kids to dip them in.  Sticking so well to glass surfaces means it's also a great game for the lounge room, or anywhere with a large window.

Furthermore if you are not strictly playing a game of Tetris,as described earlier,  these foam pieces are great for younger kids. My 20 month old niece also enjoys using the pieces  randomly matching some together and sticking others just here and there.

Note: Please let the kids know that scrunching up the pieces can damage them a little and prevents them from sticking flat. Also while the foam is pretty durable it will rip if pulled with force.We found this out the hard way when two of the kids were fighting over the same piece.

Till next time, happy playing!

DIY Bath Time Memory Game

Here is a bath time game that is truly good clean fun with no mess, no fuss and hopefully no wet bathroom swamp floor (I can't guarantee though). What is this heaven sent game? Well the game itself is not new but it has been revamped for the bath, and that game is...Bath Time MEMORY!

I loved playing Memory as a child and my daughter is finally getting the concept. So far the little one's experience of Memory has been through an app on the tablet but since we are trying to reduce screen time here I thought why not make a bath tub version?

If you want to try it out yourselves here's how.

What you will need

•  Cutting board 
• Cutting tool like a rotary blade cutter or Stanly knife etc.
• Ruler (I find a quilter's ruler works best)
• Foam sheets ( I found one sheet was enough but you can use more and make more cards)
• Permanent marker or markers if you want colourful designs (test before hand to make sure they don't wash off)

Note: Alternatively you can ditch the cutting board and tool and just use a ruler and pen to mark out the cards and then use scissors to cut the pieces. This way though I find you end up with marks around the edges where you've drawn your lines making it look messy.


Now you can make the cards any size you want as long as they are all the same size. I made my cards 2 inches by 2 3/4 inches.  To make the designs nice and neat I found a packet of stencils to trace the designs from. Of course you can draw your designs freehand or any other way you see fit. It's a pretty simple project isn't it? The only thing you have to remember is to make two of every design!

How to play

We found you can play Bath Time Memory two ways. The first way I guess you could call the traditional way. Wet the cards to make them 'sticky' and arrange them in a grid on the side of the bath or on the wall.  Each person takes a turn flipping two cards over. If they match you get to keep them, if not then both are turned over and the next person gets a turn. The winner is he/she who has the most pairs. 

For the second way, which we have found to be a lot more fun, put all the pieces in the tub letting them float around in the bubbles. (Bubbles are not necessary but we love them here!) Again the aim of the game is to make pairs but this time it's harder to remember where things are because the pieces are constantly bobbing about. The only tip from us is to make sure there are no pieces hiding behind anyone when playing Bath Time Memory like this. We didn't notice the ones behind my daughter and we ended up confused as to why we couldn't make a pair with some of the cards.

So there you have it, a very simple but fun alternative to a much loved oldie. Of course the difficulty level of the game can be adjusted by having more or less cards. You can also make it harder by having similar images such as a set of similar fishes or flowers which means you have to concentrate more in order to remember what was where.

Well until next time happy bath time and happy playing!

Toy rich and play poor. Can too many toys affect children's play?

I was watching some videos on YouTube last night, videos that featured children in India playing games on the street and particularly in the dusty dirt. Some of them looked as though they were lucky to be clothed while others were dressed particularly well in traditional and radiantly coloured saris. The videos themselves were about traditional Indian village games and although they were about children playing, what these children were playing with at any given time were nothing more than a handful of rocks, marbles and a small twig. No Barbies, no Lego not even a humble ball.

But you know what? The lack of 'toys was not what struck me most about these videos. What almost took my breath away with surprise was the sheer joy and and sense of fun that these children were having.  There was a wonderful sense of connection between the children, what one might call a sense of intimacy between the players. And then it dawned on me. Are we in the western, middle-class world, with all our fantastic plastic toys and games toy rich yet play poor? Does having more toys enhance our play experiences or do they actually distract or take away the opportunity to really play?

In order to answer these questions I was first tempted to looks up and devourer any literature I could find on the topic of toys and play. I then decided why read about something I whiteness everyday in my own home? Academic literature is great but sometimes you just got to open your own eyes and make sense of what is happening before you. So I thought to myself when do I find my child either alone or with others playing with the same enthusiasm as those Indian children were and what toys, if any are part of that experience?

Well sitting here at the computer I did a little thinking and you might have guessed it, the answer to "When are the kids happiest playing?' is when there are little or NO toys involved. I can't say if this is true for every child or even the majority of children, but the children I have the pleasure of taking care of are the kind that thrive on less. (P.S kids, your all getting empty boxes and bubble wrap for Christmas!)

For example, the other day my daughter and her cousins were upstairs in her room playing. I brought out the Duplo to make a marble run, there was a puzzle available to them, a dolls house and some bean bags and of course marbles. Seeing that they were well 'supplied' I went back down stairs to make lunch. As I climbed the stairs to see how they were getting on, I could already hear bouts of laughter and giggling. I thought wow they're having a great time, is that Duplo marble run that good? (sorry mum it's good but not THAT good) Nope the toy's were on one end of the room and the kids were on the other side jumping on the bed flopping on their backs and then throwing marbles over their heads to see who could throw it the furthers in this rather complicated manner. So on this occasion 'best-fun-eva' = bed and a handful of marbles!

I then started thinking about times I've watched the kids actually playing with toys and I mean lots of them like a whole Barbie set, with the car, house and pool, and I came to realise that based on these moments of play, that toys can actually separate and divide our children from their playmates, and I don't just mean on those occasions where you find them fighting over the same toy, both unwilling to share. I'm talking about those times when you walk into a room with each child in one corner of the play space with for example their own Barbie and set of associated accessories. The only time they actually come together with the other child is to swap an outfit or to pretend for a total of 5 minutes that they are 'going out for a muffin' (did you know Barbie has her own bakery/coffee shop set?) only to then have their dollies say bye and go back to their own houses, aka the other side of the room.


This type of play seemed so dead, or for a better word, flat. It lacked that fun that the other play had, that joyful and creative energy.With so much concentration needed to act upon the dolls and all their glorious plastic bits and pieces I guess the kids didn't really have much mental space for creative thinking and planning. By planning I mean planning and developing the narrative that their dolls would then act out. Maybe its a Barbie thing, because that is one tricky woman to get to sit, walk, or do anything else that isn't standing or laying down.I'd like to add here that about half an hour later the kids left the Barbie scene and started playing hide and seek, that funtastic magic was back on!

So what to conclude here? This is undoubtedly a very limited and anecdotal based post I am not denying that at all, but  from those moments of play that I can recall, looks like too many toys can affect how children play, and not really for the better (depends on your definition of play and what constitutes as great play I guess).For at least energetic 3 and 4 year olds, less is more, more laughter, more excitement and simply more fun!  But could there possibly be a time when  more is more? Wouldn't it  be better, for instance, when you have more blocks? More blocks to build with has got to mean more fun, doesn't it? And bean bags, can you really have enough bean bags? Well I know what I'm testing out with the kids tomorrow!

Would love to hear your ideas on this topic and what you find makes fun play for your children.

As always, happy playing!

World Autism Awareness Week and Tips on how to 'play' with children with Autism

It's a shame that I've just realised that the past week was World Autism Awareness Week for 2015. The actual week is from the 27th of March until the 2nd of April. Children with Autism have a special place in my heart for as a special needs teacher, I've had the honour, challenge and pleasure of working with many students with Autism.

While they all were labeled Autistic, they were by no means all alike. I think we so often hear about or read about what Autistic children/adults are supposed to be like that we forget to just look at the individual before us. I personally have made a note to not read a student's reports when they are new to my class, just for this reason! I want to get to know them for who they are before my mind is set up to assume what they are like from test results and specialists comments and reports. Don't get me wrong, I think these tests and reports can shed a lot of light on the individual's needs and abilities but no one is ever exactly like what these tests can make them out to be. Are you the B+ or D you got on your Maths test in 1997?

 If you read through the literature on Autism you'll find Autistic individuals are often described as being uncomfortable with giving eye contact, needing a regular schedule, having problems reading social cues and unable to show affection etc. But then I've had students who would look me straight in the eye while telling me about a topic that interested them. Another student was the most huggable child I ever met and loved being cuddled and giving cuddles too or holding hands while he smiled and looked right into your eyes. And lots of my students tolerated my last minute changes to schedules without even showing a hint of anxiety about a broken schedule.  On the other hand the literature was spot on. Many of my Autistic students did have issues with eye contact, showing emotions and I must say ALL Autistic students I've met and taught have had real issues with reading social cues.

I guess my point again is that even though it is Autism Awareness Week don't get caught out thinking that all Autistic children are the same. Think of the lists of Autistic traits as things a child could 'possibly' have or struggle with. Remember that even children with Autism are individuals and deserve to be acknowledged for their individual strengths and weaknesses. Don't just assume they will tick every box on the Autistic profile list. Be educated about Autism but be prepared to be sensitive to the individual and please don't let the literature stop you from getting to know the Autistic child in front of you.

Being a blog about play I would also like to share with you some tips on how to play or engage a child with Autism to play. These tips are based on my experiences in the classroom and what has worked for me. They are not researched in the formal sense, they are very much simply based on my observations and experiences and what I find helpful.

Tip 1. Eye Contact - Let it Go!
I have to admit it took me a while to 'get over it' and felt that I was being disrespected when not shown eye contact by a student. Oh what a rude fool I was. Don't demand eye contact! If the child is not comfortable with it let it go, let them look to the side when they are talking to you or playing with you, whatever they need. We have to grow up and accept that this is really hard for some Autistic individuals and they are not doing it to be rude. Is it worth ruining a play session because of it? And NO they don't have to learn. What if you visited the planet Z and they stood on their heads to greet each other would it be fair that they made you do something so impossible for you just to satisfy their social expectations?

Tip 2. Use visual symbols and aids to support communication when playing with an Autistic individual. 
I know not all children with Autism are non-verbal or limited in their verbal abilities but the ones I have worked with were so I needed another form of communication to support them during play. I personally found Aided Language Displays, or otherwise known and ALD's, as a wonderful tool for helping students to direct or comment during play. It also helped them to make requests and let me know their preferences.

Here is an example of an ALD for playing with bubbles.

As you can see the ALD has symbols which students can point to to say something related to bubble play. This is a simple board with only 12 cells but a child can still ask for more bubbles, comment on the size and amount of  bubbles, express surprise 'wow' or let their play partner know when something has gone wrong with the 'uh oh' symbol. I has all sorts of ALD'S when I was working as a teacher. There were ones for playing with blocks, cars, game boards and they really helped my students express themselves during play.


Tip 3. Be thoughtful about the types of games or play you try to engage an Autistic child in.
The games I found my students liked to play or were able to keep up with were simple games that had a set and predictable process or set of rules. For example, board games where a dice is rolled and then a marker is moved across the board were the most successful because the child knew the procedure and it was predictable.

Wait, take turn, roll dice, count and move marker, stop, wait for turn. Do this until my marker reaches end. 

Bingo in all its forms was also a favourite because again there was a simple and predictable process and set of rules.

Wait for number to be called, match number if I have it, put marker on it, stop, wait for next number. Shout Bingo when I have all numbers covered. 

Games that were more difficult to get students to engage in were ones that required imagination and spontaneity because of the difficulty they had reading social cues and being able to think laterially. For example I wouldn't ask them to play Mama's and Papa's unless we were working from a pre-written scrips that they learnt. For if I said "there's no food in the fridge and baby is hungry" the Autistic children I worked with would not take those cues and suggest we go shopping for example. I would have to direct the whole play by saying things like "baby is dirty let's wash her" and with the child procced to wash the baby. 

A list of games my students enjoyed were playing with bubbles, cars, blocks, water play, Bingo, simple board games like snakes and ladders, Trouble and dominoes. 

Tip 4. Don't assume that it's not play if it doesn't look like play to you.

Bec Oakley writes in her article  about Autism and play something that really struck a note with me and that illustrates my point. "We consider it odd behaviour for a child to bang his shoe on the floor repetitively, yet applaud the child next to him for doing the same thing with a rubber hammer."

Don't stop an Autistic child doing something you think is not play and try to direct them to something more socially acepted as play. Throwing scarfs in the air and letting them fall on your face can be the best game an Autistic child feels he's ever played. (or a toddler for that matter) Join the child at their level, get right in if they are happy to let you and throw those scarfs in the air yourself. Somethimes simple sensory experiences are what Autistic children like best as play. I would only recomend that you redirect or stop play if it is in itself dangerous or causing damage to property, equipment or to others. In fact you might do well to set up different sensory experiences for such children. Just look online for sensory games or crafts and you will find plenty of ideas.

Anyway I hope you've enjoyed this post and the tips. Again they are very much based on my expeirences and not on specific research. And next time you celebrate Autism Awareness Week remember to be aware of the individual as well as the spectrum.

Happy Autism Awareness Week and happy playing. 

How to build a Duplo Marble Maze

Having moved to Germany, leaving all my daughter's toys behind, we were very lucky to inherit a lot of toys from my husband's childhood. Being the tinkering, building type he is means that a lot of the toys he owned are building blocks, Lego and the larger version Duplo. Most of the time my daughter uses the Duplo to build towers. She doesn't mind when they fall over, which they do and often, she just rebuilds and asks me to join her. As you can see in the photo she has sometimes managed to build towers about a foot taller than herself!

 Me personally, I am sick of building Duplo towers! It's OK for say 20 minutes a day but after that 20 minute mark I am looking to escape.  I mean there has to be more to Duplo than just building towers right?  That's when I remembered watching this clip on YouTube where someone had built a Lego maze for their hamster to run through. Now we might not have a hamster but we do have marbles! And so our Duplo marble maze was born.  

Here are the instructions for how to build one yourself. 

What you will need

• Large Duplo board
• Duplo bricks of various sizes
• one marble
• Eager adult and child ready to build! 

First start by building a single layer of bricks around the perimeter of your board. Once you've done that decide where your marble maze is going to start and where it will finish. Once you have decided, start putting bricks around leaving 2 nob spaces free for your path. If you have enough Duplo pieces it is better to build all the walls 2 bricks up so that the marble doesn't fall out of the maze when it's moved around. We unfortunately don't have that much so the marble gets lost every now and then.

You can make it easy for young children by setting up a single path towards the finish. This is the easiest version we were able to come up with. Start is at top right hand corner and finish is the bottom left hand corner.

 To make it harder you can create nooks like in a real maze that trick you or block the marble from reaching its goal. These are just small nooks and don't take much moving of the board to get out of. The path itself is also pretty easy because it starts with needing to slant to the left, then across towards the top of the photo and then to the right, back towards the end again. See photo below.

This is what I like to think is the hardest maze I've made yet! See photo below.

 Well I thought it was a really hard maze but it only took 2 struggling turns before the little one mastered it. Unfortunately I didn't get  those first two attempt on video but here's a few photos of her playing with one of the mazes I made.

As you can see to play you just put the marble in the start position and move the board around to get the marble to move through the maze. Darling daughter likes to roll the marble back to the start position after she's got it through the maze. Back and forth, back and forth...

What I as a parent love about this game is that it is easy to increase the complexity of the game. Also it's easy to create a new maze, a few blocks moved and bingo! I also think it's a game that can entertain children of varying ages. I can imagine young toddlers or babies getting a big kick out of watching the marble move around, even if an adult has to do it for them and of course you could build this with Lego too, challenging older children by designing more complex mazes.It also gets you thinking creatively and challenging yourself to make harder mazes sure beats building those one brick towers!

If you give this idea a go please let me know how you went and send a photo of your hardest maze design. I'd love to share them and set up a bit of a slide show on this blog.

Thanks for reading and as always happy playing!

Hand Clapping around the world

Just a quick post to share with you some of the Youtube clips I watched the other day while doing some research for my previous post Old school games: Hand Clapping. Hope you enjoy!

Please if you have come across or have yourself made a video involving a hand clapping game please leave a comment with a link to your video. I'd love to feature more videos like these. 

From Japan... check out the coordination!

Here's one from Liberia, Africa. What struck me here is that the clapping patterns they use are EXACTLY the same as what I remember doing in Melbourne, Australia in the 1980's!

How to sew a draw-string bag tutorial

It has become very obvious to us that marbles are a nusaince to keep track of. They seem to get under furniture, behind book cases and I think my daughter loves leaving them around the house just as much as she likes playing with them. I have to admit having marbles here, there and everywhere is making me lose my marbles so I've decided to suprise my daughter with her very own draw-string marble bag. In case you are also in need of a draw-string bag for marbles or any other small toys and bits and pieces here is a tutorial on how to sew one.

What you will need

• Sewing Machine
• Scissors or rotary blade cutter
• Ruler or measuring tape
• Safety pin and sewing pins
• Cutting mat if using a rotary blade cutter
• Pen or anything to make marks on fabric
• 2 pieces of fabric, any non-stretch material, cotton, linen, polyester, gingham
• 2 pieces of ribbon 

First you will need to use your scissors or rotary cutter to cut 2 pieces of fabric 12 inches x 10 inches.







If you want you can now go over the edges with a zig zag stitch to clean up edges and stop fraying do this now around all sides of both pieces of fabric. I recommend it as sometimes the holes where the ribbons are threaded through tend to come through and fray.






Using your ruler or measuring tape, measure from the top of bag and make 2 marks at 3 inches, then at 4 inches along the longer side of the bag. Mark both sides of bag in the same manner.  See photo below.

Put both pieces of fabric right sides facing each other and pin in place. Set up your sewing machine on straight stitch and start sewing leaving a 1/4" seam from the edge of fabric. Sew back and forth a few stitches to anchor your sewing. Stop at the 3 inch mark and then start again at the 4 inch mark so you have a 1 inch gap for your ribbon to go through. Continue sewing along the side and bottom edge and then back up the other side, again stopping and starting again at the 4 inch and 3 inch marks. See photo.


Now you can leave the bag just as is or you can get a little fancy on the bottom corners. The bag will sit open a bit better and it just looks a little nicer, I think. But this really is an optional step. To make the bottom corners a little fancy, put your hand in the bag and open up the corner. Fold so that the corner forms a triangle. With your fingers on the outside feel that both seams are touching each other. Then press flat and put under the machine to sew. See photo below as I really find this tricky to explain.


Sew across the triangle like this about an 1.5 inches from the triangle's top point. Repeat on other side. Once you do that you end up with something like this.








Flip 2 inches of the top into the bag to form the casting where the ribbon will go through. Using a straight stitch sew a 1/4 of an inch from the edge of the casting.

Cut two pieces of ribbon 23 inches in length. Put a safety pin through the end of one of the pieces of ribbon. Thread through one hole until you come back to the same hole. Once you have done that tie the two ends together with a knot. Do the same again with the other piece of ribbon but thread through the other hole.











And there you have it! Your own draw-string bag for all those amazing marbles. Of course this simple bag would be great for all sorts of game pieces and toys. If you want something bigger or smaller just adjust the size of the fabric pieces and the length of the strings.

Happy sewing and happy playing!